What do you mean by Schizophrenia? Classify it.

Definition of Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a chronic mental health disorder marked by profound disruptions in perception of reality, thinking, emotion and behaviour. It typically presents with positive symptoms (hallucinations, delusions, disorganized speech), negative symptoms (flattened affect, social withdrawal, diminished motivation) and cognitive impairments (poor attention, memory, executive function), causing significant functional decline across personal, social and occupational domains.

Classification of Schizophrenia

1. Classical Subtypes (no longer distinct DSM-5 diagnoses but still useful as treatment specifiers):
– Paranoid: Predominant delusions of persecution or grandeur, auditory hallucinations.
– Disorganized (Hebephrenic): Fragmented thought and speech, inappropriate affect, disorganized behaviour.
– Catatonic: Motoric immobility or excessive purposeless activity, mutism, posturing.
– Undifferentiated: Symptoms spanning more than one subtype without a dominant clinical picture.
– Residual: History of at least one acute episode, with current predominance of negative or mild residual symptoms.

2. DSM-5 Specifiers (subtype labels removed in 2013 due to overlap and low diagnostic validity; instead clinicians add specifiers to describe current features):
– With catatonia
– First-episode, currently in acute episode/partial remission/full remission
– Continuous
– With a good/fair/poor prognostic features
– With prominent negative symptoms.